A flight attendant on a Swedish jet flying from Malmö in the south of the country to Majorca, Spain, went into meltdown when smoke began pouring into the aeroplane from the cockpit ten minutes from its scheduled landing at Palma airport.

Can we always rely on flight attendants to keep calm in a crisis?

Contrary to what we imagine flight attendants might do in an emergency midair, the woman tearfully informed terrified passengers on the holiday flight that a technical fault had been detected and that the plane would have to make an emergency landing. As she advised them to adopt the crash position with their heads between their knees hysteria broke out on board with one man fainting while others screamed, sobbed or were violently sick. Despite the panic, the plane landed safely in Majorca where it was discovered that the smoke had been caused by a defective TV screen.